Quebec's Due
It's a tough place to be in for a political party and a leader anxious to gain inroads into the province in the knowledge that this way leads to a potential majority government. On the other hand, to gain those constituents, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, would have to deliberately alienate his broader support base.
More to the point, he would have to divorce himself from the conservative position of responsibility and fiscal restraint. And one would hope that isn't likely, for to do so he would be identifying himself as someone too prepared to surrender principle, however briefly. If it's a brief dalliance, then a quick return to conservative values, does it count? Damn right, it does.
And the Bloc Quebecois is gleefully laying on that kind of voter volatility, knowing it can only win, whatever the Conservatives decide on. To begin with, the prime minister has earned a copper star, not a silver nor a gold one, for failing to make it abundantly clear that his government will not fund $180-million-worth of a Quebec City sports stadium.
The message delivered to the government by the electorate remains firm; tax dollars are not to be used to fund and support private sport enterprise; professional sport arenas can self-fund or find funding through corporate generosity, even municipal and provincial funding not taxpayer-funded largesse through general national revenues which should be supporting hospitals, education and social welfare systems.
"We're looking at a sweeping victory in Quebec City" crows a Bloc MP, counting on the government giving its final response to a querulous Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume complaining the federal government is taking too long to make up its mind. "People are tired of waiting. They are starting to notice the Conservatives are not delivering the goods."
One would hope so, one would assume so, one would be entirely correct in feeling that this matter should have been settled unequivocally right from the start with a resounding, "sorry, but no". Yet the federal minister for Quebec City took the time to patiently explain her government, while not ruling out financial 'help', awaits a detailed financial plan.
"I've never seen Quebec treated with such little fairness ever since I've been elected in Ottawa", Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe complained, stressing as he always does that Quebec deserves far more than it receives, hands out and grasping. Even as he demands a special endowment of $5-billion from taxpayers across Canada, as Quebec's due.
More to the point, he would have to divorce himself from the conservative position of responsibility and fiscal restraint. And one would hope that isn't likely, for to do so he would be identifying himself as someone too prepared to surrender principle, however briefly. If it's a brief dalliance, then a quick return to conservative values, does it count? Damn right, it does.
And the Bloc Quebecois is gleefully laying on that kind of voter volatility, knowing it can only win, whatever the Conservatives decide on. To begin with, the prime minister has earned a copper star, not a silver nor a gold one, for failing to make it abundantly clear that his government will not fund $180-million-worth of a Quebec City sports stadium.
The message delivered to the government by the electorate remains firm; tax dollars are not to be used to fund and support private sport enterprise; professional sport arenas can self-fund or find funding through corporate generosity, even municipal and provincial funding not taxpayer-funded largesse through general national revenues which should be supporting hospitals, education and social welfare systems.
"We're looking at a sweeping victory in Quebec City" crows a Bloc MP, counting on the government giving its final response to a querulous Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume complaining the federal government is taking too long to make up its mind. "People are tired of waiting. They are starting to notice the Conservatives are not delivering the goods."
One would hope so, one would assume so, one would be entirely correct in feeling that this matter should have been settled unequivocally right from the start with a resounding, "sorry, but no". Yet the federal minister for Quebec City took the time to patiently explain her government, while not ruling out financial 'help', awaits a detailed financial plan.
"I've never seen Quebec treated with such little fairness ever since I've been elected in Ottawa", Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe complained, stressing as he always does that Quebec deserves far more than it receives, hands out and grasping. Even as he demands a special endowment of $5-billion from taxpayers across Canada, as Quebec's due.
Labels: Canada, Charity, culture, Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ 5:43 PM
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